Culture

Busking for ballet lessons: Meet the Hoffman four-kid string quartet

Grand/Lake traffic bustled by on a recent sunny Saturday.  Parents pushed children in strollers; women carrying yoga mats chatted as they headed home from class; the coffee shops and cafes did a brisk business in iced beverages.  But in front of the Lakeshore Ave Peet’s Coffee, there was a small crowd of stillness as passersby stopped to listen to the Hoffman children, a four-sibling string quartet, who were busking to raise money for ballet lessons. Their mother, Jodi Hoffman, hovered…

J school dean discusses $5m Bay Area News Project

The Bay Area News Project, a nonprofit media venture that will start with a $5 million grant from Bay Area financier Warren Hellman,  will bridge gaps in coverage of local news issues while guiding reporters through an era of shrinking job opportunities and technological change, a leader of the project said Tuesday. Neil Henry, dean of U.C. Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, made the remarks about the recently-announced endeavor at an afternoon meeting held on the UC Berkeley campus.  The plan,…

Sister Spit on stage in Oakland tomorrow

Sister Spit: The Next Generation, a collaboration of spoken-word performances by local “queer” writers, poets, artists, and a comedienne kicked off their 2009 national tour at the Lab Wednesday night. The closest they get to the Bay Area again is Oct. 7 at the Oakland Metro Operahouse in downtown Oakland. Presented by local literary nonprofit Radar Productions, it was a return to roots for many of the performers including local celebrity Michelle Tea, founder of Sister Spit. Tea made her…

Meet Serina Elliott, future kitchen champion

In this video, we follow Serina Elliott, a Kitchen of Champions student from North Oakland’s Golden Gate neighborhood. Just four weeks into her program, Elliot aspires to one day become “a Food Network star.”